Thirty days is just about the right amount of time to add a new habit or subtract a habit — like watching the news — from your life.

Matt Cutts made this remark in the context of his popular “30 days” personal experiment, in which he tried small, time-bounded changes for a month to see how they affected his life. The idea was presented to a broad public audience in his TED talk about “30-day challenges,” where he described using a 30-day window to start or stop behaviors (including, as an example, avoiding the news) as a manageable way to test habit change without feeling like it must be permanent. The quote reflects that practical, self-experimentation framing rather than a formal psychological claim.

The line frames personal change as a manageable, time-bounded experiment: commit for thirty days and you can either install a beneficial routine or remove a draining one. By pairing “add” and “subtract,” it emphasizes that self-improvement is not only about doing more, but also about deliberately reducing inputs that erode attention and mood. The parenthetical example—“like watching the news”—highlights information consumption as a habit with emotional and cognitive costs, suggesting that stepping back can restore focus and well-being. The quote’s appeal lies in its practicality: it lowers the barrier to change by making it temporary, measurable, and reversible, which can increase follow-through.